Trails: Pretoria’s newest mountain bike trails park isn’t focussed on distance, but on variety, with stimulating singletrack and gravity-friendly fun. Here’s what’s on offer:

Green Trail ‑ 27.7km Easy

Blue Trail – 2.8km Moderate

Black Trail – 3.5km Technical

Cross-country – 4.46km – with relatively moderate difficulty obstacles, this is a great route to bridge from Spur Series events to Provincial and National level courses. Ideal for those getting into XC racing.

Enduro – Six runs (totalling 6.88km) – each run has its own features but overall, the Enduro routes are ideal for most confident riders as well as those wanting to step up to Enduro riding/racing.

Dirt Jumps – recently reworked, these jumps deliver super angles with relatively low-risk landings.

North Shore – A short section, but with increasing difficulty that offers a super adrenaline rush!

Drop Zone – progressional drop-offs that allow you fine-tune your technique and grow your confidence.

Mini Pump – Ideal for smaller bikes – 20, 24 and 26-inch wheels, which means perfect for kids, this new feature is right in front of the trailhead where parents can relax while their kids have fun.

Mini Flow – Actually not that mini! This flow line is fun for all levels and ages and adjacent to the trailhead, which allows parents to watch their youngsters.

Big Flow Line – Probably the most talked about feature at Grootfontein, the Big Flow Line is 800 metres of big-jump stimulation. Most of the jumps are tabletops or step-ups, which makes them safe for most.

Located 10km east of Pretoria on the Garstfontein Road, Grootfontein Bike Park offers more riding variety than any other Bike Park in Gauteng. While most parks offer long distance and high percentages of singletrack, Grootfontein has opted to focus on the growing new-generation market that’s riding for fun and learning and testing skills.

In a region with a strong focus on endurance riding, it was a bit of a risk, but Grootfontein has become a breath of fresh air and appeals to kids, young riders, riders that enjoy jumping and riders that enjoy XCO and Enduro. Essentially everything but endurance. However, the recent addition to the Green Trail of the Green Mielie and Soy Bean routes does still cater for those keen on an uncomplicated, but stimulating ride in the country with a total distance of 27km.

No costs have been cut in the development of Grootfontein Bike Park, which even has gravel added to the large car park to eliminate dust and mud in the dry and wet seasons. The trailhead is fashioned from transport containers from which you can get light refreshments and good quality coffee!

People: The trails master is Peet Erasmus. He’s not a mountain biker (yet), but he’s passionate about creating stimulating, social opportunities for all types of mountain biker and he’s hired experts in their fields to design and build the trails and features. Grootfontein has been built on his family farm on a section that’s not possible to use for crops. The whole Erasmus family gets involved when necessary and they take great pride in what they have built, measured by the smiles on the faces of visitors.

Local tip: Besides the obvious one, that the final jump on the Big Flow line is a 9-metre road gap (fade to the left before it!), combining the Green, Blue and Black Trails provides a reasonable amount of distance and singletrack for just over 30km in total. Start with the Black though as finishing with it is tough!

Safety: Since the park is on a farm, it benefits from the farm security. But it’s still in South Africa, so best to ride with others or at least let someone know you’re riding there.

Operating hours: Tuesday-Sunday and public holidays. Closed on Mondays.

Directions:

MULTIPARK PARKS